2. Documentation of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees
2.1. Registered Afghan refugees
2.1.1. PoR cardholders
(a) History
A 2002 Human Rights Watch report stated that the Government of Pakistan issued so-called passbooks (also known as Shanakhti passes) in the early years of the 1980s. The passbooks provided no legal protection and were used only for assistance.293F289 According to a Danish Refugee Council report authored by Roger Zetter, an emeritus professor for refugee studies at the University of Oxford, ‘until 2006, Afghan refugees in Pakistan did not require legal
documents’.294F290
In December 2004, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between UNHCR and the Government of Pakistan agreeing to conduct a detailed census of Afghans who had arrived after 1 December 1979. The MoU led to a countrywide census of the Afghan refugee population, carried out by the Population and Census Organization (PCO) of Pakistan between 25 February 2005 and 11 March 2005. Around three million Afghans were counted in the census.295F291
In April 2006, a MoU on the Registration of Afghan Citizens in Pakistan was signed between the Government of Pakistan and UNHCR. Under this MoU, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) was responsible for executing the registration. Staff from UNHCR monitored the registration process. Staff from the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MORR) were ‘also closely involved in the assisting in the registration and monitoring the process’. Biometrics (fingerprints and facial recognition) were included to ensure the credibility of the registration. Only Afghan refugees who arrived or were born after 1 December 1979 in Pakistan and who were enumerated in the census of 2005 (result of the census: 3 049 268 persons) were eligible for registration.296F292 In December 2006 it was decided that all Afghans who had documented evidence that they were living in Pakistan at the time of the census should participate in the registration process.297F293
The registration was conducted in different phases. First, a pilot project was set up from 1 October 2006 until 10 October 2006 in two ‘selected locations’ in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Punjab province to test the registration technology and refine the process. Then a first registration phase that started on 15 October 2006 and lasted until
289 Human Rights Watch, Closed Door Policy: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and Iran, February 2002, url, p. 19
290 DRC, Protection for forcibly displaced Afghan populations in Pakistan and Iran, September 2018, url, p. 16
291 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, pp. 1, 3
292 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 3
293 New Humanitarian (The), UN cautions on Afghan refugee camp closures, 17 January 2007, url
31 December 2006 was rolled out in the whole country. This was followed by a second registration phase that took place from 4 January 2007 until 15 February 2007.298F294 As reported by UNHCR, 2 153 088 Afghans were registered between 1 October 2006 and
15 February 2007, a figure 30 % below the census total of 2005. This discrepancy was attributed to the fact that 582 535 persons had been repatriated during 2005–06 while another 313 645 persons did not register.299F295 The NADRA was also responsible for issuing the PoR (Proof of Registration) cards.300F296 More than 1.5 million PoR cards were printed and
distributed in 2007, with all registered Afghans (aged five years and above) receiving PoR cards301F297 with personal and biometric data302F298. These cards granted holders temporary legal stay and freedom of movement within Pakistan303F299 and were initially issued with an expiry date of December 2009304F300. As Katja Mielke and her co-authors noted in their 2021 research paper, no rights other than protection from refoulement have been officially attached to PoR card holder status.305F301
A database (maintained by the NADRA) was established to store the demographic and
biometric data of all Afghan refugees for whom a PoR card was issued.306F302 At the 12th Tripartite Commission meeting held in February 2007, the Government of Pakistan, the Government of Afghanistan and UNHCR agreed to link the PoR card to new modalities of voluntary
repatriation and to an enhanced reintegration package when returning to Afghanistan.307F303 With the PoR cards issued for a limited validity period, a PoR cards verification exercise was conducted in 2010, updating the number of PoR cardholders to 1.8 million.308F304 The renewed cards issued during this exercise had an expiry date of 31 December 2012.309F305 The next PoR exercise was conducted from February 2014 until the end of 2014 and all Afghans whose PoR cards had formally expired in December 2012 were eligible to have their cards renewed. Also, children who had reached the age of five years since the 2010 exercise and had until then been registered with their parents were entitled to receive their own PoR cards.310F306 Moreover, the campaign involved the registration of children born to registered parents in the previous five years (i.e. under-five-year-olds).311F307 In 2014, the number of PoR cardholders was updated to
294 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 3
295 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 4
296 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 1
297 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 2
298 UNHCR, The Global Report 2006, 30 June 2007, url, p. 365
299 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
300 AAN, Still Caught in Regional Tensions? The uncertain destiny of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, 31 January 2018, url; see also Pajhwok Afghan News, In Pakistan, Afghan refugees' blues, 25 June 2015, archived page from 17 February 2019, url
301 Mielke, K. et al., Figurations of Displacement in and beyond Pakistan, TRAFIG working paper no. 7, August 2021, url, p. 10
302 Pakistan, NADRA, Afghan National Registration, n.d., url
303 UNHCR et al., Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007, 2007, archived page from 15 April 2017, url, p. 2
304 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
305 Dawn, Afghan refugee cards valid, says minister, 25 October 2013, url
306 UNHCR, UNHCR urges Afghan refugees to renew their PoR cards to retain refugee status, 1 October 2014, url; see also UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
307 UNHCR, NADRA with support from UNHCR has delivered 50 percent of the new POR cards to Afghan refugees, 1 May 2014, url
around 1.4 million and the new validity date for the PoR cards was set until 31 December 2015.312F308
In 2021, a new PoR card exercise referred to as the Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) was implemented to verify and update the personal data of about 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees313F309 whose PoR cards had expired at the end of 2015314F310 and to provide them with new PoR smartcards that were ‘based on the same
technology used for Pakistani citizen identification cards’315F311 and could be renewed digitally.316F312 According to a local expert interviewed by Mielke and others, the new smartcards were said to be ‘more technologically advanced than the previous PoR cards, more secure, long-living, and to contain a chip with biodata comprising fingerprints of all ten fingers and a facial recognition system but excluding iris scan’. The chip is connected to a centralised data management system at NADRA.317F313
Following a brief pilot phase318F314 and postponement due to the country’s third COVID-19 wave319F315, the DRIVE campaign, implemented by the Government of Pakistan, SAFRON, CCAR and the NADRA , and supported by UNHCR,320F316 was rolled out from 15 April 2021 until the end of December 2021.321F317 As of 31 December 2021, UNHCR reported that a cumulative total of 1 384 148 persons had been processed across the country. This included the verification of data of 884 629 registered refugees who would be issued a new PoR smartcard and of 169 628 registered children above the age of five, who became eligible to have their own PoR smartcards. Moreover, the above figure included 198 705 under-five-year-old children of PoR cardholders who were set to be newly registered once their documents had been validated.322F318 As UNHCR stated in mid-March 2022, the data collection phase ended on 31 December 2021, with an additional two-month grace period conducted at 12 sites until 28 February 2022.323F319 As of 31 December 2021, around 74 % of Afghan refugees holding PoR cards issued during the previous exercise took part in DRIVE.324F320 According to UNHCR, the data cleaning phase was ongoing as of mid-March 2022, with the final data expected to become available in April 2022.325F321
308 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
309 UNHCR, Pakistan concludes ‘drive’ to issue smartcards to registered Afghan refugees, 4 January 2022, url
310 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
311 UNHCR, Government delivered first new Proof of Registration smartcards to Afghan refugees, 25 May 2021, url
312 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
313 Mielke, K. et al., Figurations of Displacement in and beyond Pakistan, TRAFIG working paper no. 7, August 2021, url, p. 10
314 UNHCR, Pakistan concludes ‘drive’ to issue smartcards to registered Afghan refugees, 4 January 2022, url
315 UNHCR, PoR card renewal, verification exercise for Afghan refugees postponed due to COVID-19, 31 March 2021, url
316 UNHCR, Pakistan: Verification Exercise Update (December 2021), 10 January 2022, url, p. 1
317 UNHCR, Pakistan concludes ‘drive’ to issue smartcards to registered Afghan refugees, 4 January 2022, url
318 UNHCR, Pakistan: Verification Exercise Update (December 2021), 10 January 2022, url, p. 2
319 UNHCR, email, 15 March 2022
320 UNHCR, Pakistan: Verification Exercise Update (December 2021), 10 January 2022, url, p. 1
321 UNHCR, email, 15 March 2022
By the end of December 2021, over 700 000 new smartcards had been issued.326F322 In mid-March 2022, UNHCR reported that the process of issuing new PoR smartcards was continuing, with 887 000 smartcards distributed as of 1 March 2022. These cards are generally ‘available for collection 20 days after an interview, meaning that those refugees interviewed in late February should be able to collect their cards before the end of March [2022]’. Cards that have not been collected would be available at the new PoR Card
Modification (PCM) centres, expected to start operating in April 2022.327F323 For more information on the PCM centres, see the following subsection.
Regarding Afghan refugees who were eligible to have their data verified during DRIVE but may have been prevented from taking part in the exercise due to circumstances beyond their control, UNHCR explained in mid-March 2022 that a proposal was being worked out to provide the possibility ‘to verify and issue new PoR smartcards to otherwise eligible refugees who could not engage during DRIVE’ for a limited period of time, and subject to proof of exceptional circumstances. The proposal’s details, such as the time period and the criteria to be met still remained to be finalised.328F324
(b) Registration process and renewal, modification, and replacement of PoR cards Registration
Regarding new registrations of Afghans as refugees, UNHCR stated in April 2021 that Afghans who have never held a PoR card (including family members of PoR cardholders who have never been registered with NADRA) cannot be issued PoR cards. However, this does not apply to newly born children of PoR cardholders under the age of five. These children can be registered by their parents.329F325
UNHCR stated in April 2021 that for such children to be issued a PoR card, the parent who holds a valid PoR card on the back of which the child’s registration information is recorded must accompany the child to a PoR card modification (PCM) centre to have the child’s photo and biometric data recorded. Once this process has been completed, the parent’s PoR card will also need to be modified and re-issued. As the source indicated, newly issued PoR cards
‘should be available for collection at the PCM centre within two weeks of the application’.330F326 During the 2021 DRIVE exercise the PCM centres were closed331F327 while NADRA (as part of DRIVE) issued PoR smartcards for Afghan PoR-cardholders and new-borns, thereby extending their registration until the end of 2023’.332F328 As UNHCR wrote in mid-March 2022, operations at the PCM centres remained suspended. Preparations were underway for the resumption of
322 UNHCR, Pakistan: Verification Exercise Update (December 2021), 10 January 2022, url, p. 1
323 UNHCR, email, 15 March 2022
324 UNHCR, email, 15 March 2022
325 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, pp. 1, 3; see also Human Rights Watch, Pakistan: Stop Forced Returns of Afghans, 21 February 2015, url
326 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, pp. 2-3
327 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
328 Mielke, K. et al., Figurations of Displacement in and beyond Pakistan, TRAFIG working paper no. 7, August 2021, url, p. 10
activities at the PCM centres ‘with strengthened functions and in an increased number of locations’. The centres were expected to reopen in April.333F329
PoR card renewal
As UNHCR explained ahead of the latest DRIVE exercise in 2021, to obtain their new PoR smartcards during the exercise, eligible Afghan refugees (i.e. those who were registered and holders of PoR cards with an expiry date of 31 December 2015) first needed to make an appointment before visiting a PoR DRIVE site. When scheduling their appointment, a specific PoR DRIVE site would be designated for them. Where possible, this would be the site located
‘closest to the PoR cardholder’s place of residence’. Once the appointment has been made, he or she would receive ‘an SMS confirming the time, date and location of the appointment’.334F330 The DRIVE exercise was carried out at 40 sites across the country as well as by ‘seven mobile teams covering vulnerable groups and numerous remote locations’.335F331
On the scheduled day of appointment, ‘PoR cardholders and their immediate family members must visit in person the PoR DRIVE site’. Cardholders were obliged to make their own
arrangements for travel to the site and both they and their immediate family members, including women and children, were obliged to ‘bring their original PoR card with an expiry date of 31 December 2015’. During their visit, interviews would be conducted, and fingerprints and photographs taken to confirm and update personal data of the cardholder and their close family members.336F332
Following the interview and a processing period of a few weeks, new PoR smartcards would be ‘issued to all eligible registered Afghan refugees’. Cardholders would be notified by SMS when the new PoR card is ready and where to collect it.337F333
To register a biological child under the age of five, it is mandatory that the child attends the interview at the DRIVE site. Moreover, the PoR cardholder’s application to register the child
‘must be supported by documentation confirming that child’s identity and the relationship with the parents’. This means that one of the following documents must be presented at the site: a certificate or notification of birth, a health record from a hospital or basic health unit (BHU), a vaccination card issued by the WHO or a medical prescription for the child.338F334
Modification and replacement
In November 2008, UNHCR initially opened four PoR card modification centres (PCM) in Pakistan. The purpose of these centres, run by the NADRA, the CARs and UNHCR, was to deal with issues relating to PoR cards of registered Afghans who had received their cards during the registration exercise of 2006/2007, and their children.339F335 As of September 2020, there were four PCM centres in the country, located in Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi, and Rawalpindi.
329 UNHCR, email, 15 March 2022
330 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
331 UNHCR, Pakistan: Verification Exercise Update (December 2021), 10 January 2022, url, p. 1
332 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
333 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
334 UNHCR, Documentation Renewal and Information Verification Exercise, n.d., url
335 UNHCR, Afghans now able to update, modify identification in Pakistan, 10 November 2008, url
Moreover, UNHCR has been deploying three mobile registration vans for those who live in remoter areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and in Punjab provinces and are unable to visit PCM centres.340F336
The PCM centres’ tasks include the modification of previously issued PoR cards, the
registration of under-five-year-old children of PoR holders, and the issuance of new PoR cards to registered children who have reached the age of five and are thus eligible to obtain their own cards.341F337
Modifications may involve: 1) correcting data recorded on existing PoR cards, e.g. regarding the names of cardholders and their immediate family members as well as age, gender, marital status, address and photo; 2) adding new information such as on a newly born child, and 3) removing children who have reached the age of five from their parents’ PoR card.342F338
As UNHCR informed in an article from 2008, persons wishing to have their PoR cards modified must present valid documents for reference purposes, such as birth or marriage certificates, passports, school certificates, a Basic Health Unit (BHU) card/vaccination card or refugee camp card.343F339 UNHCR stated that modified PoR cards ‘should be available for collection at the PCM centre within two weeks of the application.’344F340
Regarding the collection of modified PoR cards, UNHCR announced a new policy in December 2019 requiring PoR cardholders to be given 13 months (starting from the day on which the card is received at the PCM centre) to collect their modified cards from the centre.
Failing to collect their card within this period would result in withdrawal of the PoR card and deregistration of the PoR cardholder from the NADRA database, i.e. cancellation of their
‘refugee status’.345F341
The PCM centres are also tasked with the replacement of lost, stolen, damaged or faded PoR cards. In case of loss or theft, the applicant needs to present a First Information Report (FIR) issued by the police or a MoRR attestation (containing their name and PoR card number) at the PCM centre in order to receive a new PoR card. Individuals who have lost the card are obliged to make the application in person. The FIR from the police needs to contain information on the applicant’s name, their father’s name, the province and district where they reside in Pakistan, the province and district of origin in Afghanistan, the PoR card number, the address and phone number of the police station and the name of the official who issued the document.346F342
336 UNHCR, Pakistan: Afghan Refugees Registration Update (1 January – 30 September, 2020), 29 October 2020, url, pp. 1-2
337 UNHCR, Pakistan: Afghan Refugees Registration Update (1 January – 30 September, 2020), 29 October 2020, url, p. 1
338 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, p. 2; see also UNHCR, Pakistan: Afghan Refugees Registration Update (1 January – 30 September, 2020), 29 October 2020, url, p. 2
339 UNHCR, Afghans now able to update, modify identification in Pakistan, 10 November 2008, url. More recent information could not be found on this matter.
340 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, p. 3
341 UNHCR, Pakistan: Afghan Refugees Registration Update (1 January – 30 September, 2020), 29 October 2020, url, p. 2
342 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, p. 2
Duplicate PoR cards ‘should be available for collection at the PCM centre within two weeks of the application’, according to UNHCR.347F343
(c) Validity of the PoR cards
Initially, the Government of Pakistan issued PoR cards to Afghan refugees for periods of two years or longer. Thus, the PoR cards issued to Afghans as part of the 2006/2007 registration exercise had a validity until December 2009.348F344 In March 2010, the expiry date of the cards was prolonged until 31 December 2012349F345 and a further PoR card verification exercise was conducted during 2010350F346. In December 2012, the Government, in view of the worsening situation in Afghanistan, extended the cards until 30 June 2013.351F347 Following the issuance of these cards, ‘Afghans holding PoR cards that expired on 31 December 2012 or before [were]
no longer considered as persons of concern to the Government of Pakistan and UNHCR’.352F348 In 2013, the Government of Pakistan announced that the validity of the PoR cards would be extended until the end of December 2015353F349 and a PoR card renewal exercise was conducted in 2014354F350. During this PoR card exercise, renewed PoR cards were issued with a validity date of 31 December 2015.355F351
On 16 December 2014, militants affiliated with Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 141 people, the majority of whom were children.356F352 Pakistani officials held that the attack had been masterminded by militants based in Nuristan or Kunar province in Afghanistan and that Afghan nationals had been among the perpetrators. An ensuing rise in hostility towards Afghans impacted Pakistan’s extension policy of the PoR cards extensions after December 2015357F353, when the PoR cards officially expired.358F354 Thereafter, extensions were granted ‘irregularly by written government notifications for one to twelve months, often with delays’.359F355 Thus, in January 2016, Pakistan extended the validity of the PoR
343 UNHCR, Frequently Asked Questions: Services Available at the Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, April 2021, url, p. 3
344 AAN, Still Caught in Regional Tensions? The uncertain destiny of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, 31 January 2018, url; see also Pajhwok Afghan News, In Pakistan, Afghan refugees' blues, 25 June 2015, archived page from 17 February 2019, url
345 UNHCR, UNHCR welcomes Pakistan’s decision to extend stay of Afghan refugees, 25 March 2010, url
346 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
347 Pajhwok Afghan News, In Pakistan, Afghan refugees' blues, 25 June 2015, archived page from 17 February 2019, url; see also UNOCHA, Humanitarian Bulletin Pakistan, 1 – 31 January 2013, 31 January 2013, url, p. 3
348 Pakistan, CAR Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar, Proof of Registration Card Modification (PCM) Centres, n.d., url
349 UNHCR, 2013 Global Report – Pakistan, n.d., url, p. 1
350 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
351 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2; see also UNHCR, UNHCR urges Afghan refugees to renew their PoR cards to retain refugee status, 1 October 2014, url
352 BBC News, Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead, 16 December 2014, url; Guardian (The), Pakistan responds to Peshawar school massacre with strikes on Taliban, 16 December 2014, url
353 AAN, Caught Up in Regional Tensions? The mass return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, 22 December 2016, url
354 UNHCR and Government of Pakistan, Document Renewal & Information Verification Exercise (DRIVE) of Registered Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 9 February 2021, url, p. 2
355 Mielke, K. et al., Figurations of Displacement in and beyond Pakistan, TRAFIG working paper no. 7, August 2021, url, p. 10